• Question: is there something in their brain that makes children think they need to behave badly?

    Asked by michel1 to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 10 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Alice Jones Bartoli

      Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      There are so many answers I can give to this question…
      So, first of all, there are LOTS of reasons that might explain why some children behave badly. Some children have pretty unfortunate upbringings, and don’t really learn how to manage their own behaviour, some children are born with illnesses (usually genetic) that mean that their brains might not develop properly, and may behave in ways that seem bad.

      One thing I find from working with children is that very few of them ‘want’ to be bad. We can teach children ways to deal with their own feelings, and help them to manage the times when they feel very cross or frustrated. It’s just brilliant to see a child learn to say that they feel fed-up, instead of starting a fight, or throwing a chair.

      The thing that I am most interested in is how children’s biological make-up (e.g. their genes) interacts with their environment (upbringing etc). Some children can grow up in difficult homes and do very well, and others will grow up in difficult homes and end up getting into lots of trouble. I want to know why some children do ok, and others don’t. Knowing the answer to this kind of question will let us think about how we can best treat children who aren’t doing well. We’re all a mixture of our genes and our upbringings, and I’m trying to untangle that to work out what the most important things in that mix are for ‘bad’ behaviour.

      That’s quite a long answer isn’t it? I hope it answers your question 🙂

    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      I think that like most “diseases” the causes are genetics and environment. So I believe that children who have genes that predispose them to behave badly can be brought up in environments that can teach them how to cope with those impulses and I think, conversely, that children in environments which encourage them to behave badly can have genes which cause them still not to. BUT I am not a psychologist and I am just telling you what I think as a member of the public.

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